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Friday, March 16, 2012

Omar Hammami Hides Out With Fellow American While Shabab May or May Not Be Trying To Kill Him

UPDATED: Saturday, March 17, 2012

American Omar Hammami, lately of the Al Shabab affiliate of Al Qaeda in Somalia, has released an "urgent" message online saying he is afraid for his life after a split with the group.

"To whomever it may reach from the Muslims... I record this message today because I fear my life may be endangered by [Al Shabab] because of some differences that occurred regarding matters of the Sharia and of strategy."

Full video may be seen at Jihadology, which broke the news on Twitter.

Per Jihadology, Al Shabab announced via Twitter that it had no idea what Hammami was talking about and said he was in no danger.

Hammami had better hope that is true, since the video he posted appears to have been filmed at a location he previously frequented with his fellow American Shabab recruit Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax. A child, possibly Faarax's, can be heard in the background of the video.

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ISIS: THE STATE
OF TERROR

Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger co-author the forthcoming book, "ISIS: The State of Terror," from Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. The book, which will debut in early 2015, will examine the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, its potential fall, how it is transforming the nature of extremist movements, and how we should evaluate the threat it presents. Jessica Stern is a Harvard lecturer on terrorism and the author of the seminal text Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill. J.M. Berger is author of the definitive book on American jihadists, Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, a frequent contributor to Foreign Policy, and editor of Intelwire.com.